New features, content coming to the OJR news blog

This month we welcome back our USC Annenberg journalism students to the website. In previous years, as part of their journalism writing lab requirement, several dozen undergraduate and graduate students have written briefs for OJR's news blog to summarize online media stories from other sites. This year, I've asked Diana Day, a second-year graduate student who manages our news blog, to instruct our "labbies" to do more original reporting.

So, starting this week, you'll see a daily weekday dose of short original features, interviews and profiles of interesting websites and online publishers. Some will be experienced journalists who have left print and broadcast jobs to start their own publications online. Others are entrepreneurial students who have begun lively communities, commenting on the issues and personalities of the day. Still others defy one-sentence description ... so you'll just have to keep reading to see what our students have to report.

Of course, the news blog will continue to accept your submissions, too. If you have an idea for a blog item that you do not wish to write yourself, please contact Diana through her link above, and she'll pass it along to one of the student writers.

Even online news junkies read just a tiny percentage of the original content available online each day. With your help, and the help of our USC Annenberg students, we at OJR hope to bring you over the next months a look a dozens of interesting sites you might have missed.